When the ‘Big One’ Hits

A few days after Hurricane Ian obliterated huge swaths of Southwest Florida, Frank Nero and his wife, Gerri, returned to Sanibel Island and found that – miraculously – their one-story ranch-style house still stood amid the wreckage of neighboring homes. Not having to completely rebuild was their only comfort, Frank Nero told the Biscayne Times.

“The interior damage to our house was significant,” he said. “We lost everything inside.”

The Category 4 storm’s ferocious winds tore a hole through the roof near the kitchen, and a foot of water surged through the elevated home’s interior when Ian tore through the residential isle in September of last year. By the time the septuagenarian couple surveyed the damage, mold had enveloped “everything, from the floor to four feet above it,” Nero said.

More than half the home – from fixtures to flooring to drywall and insulation – had to be gutted, Nero said. When the Neros fled Sanibel Island before Ian made landfall, Frank left with two golf shirts, golf shorts and a pair of boat shoes. He lost an entire wardrobe that included 12 business suits and a tuxedo. Most of Gerri’s clothes are gone, too.

Ian and the subsequent mold also wiped out every piece of furniture, mementos and souvenirs, tools and utensils, golf clubs and Frank’s prized automobile, a cherry-red 2002 Ford Thunderbird.

Six months later, the Neros find themselves maxed out of their savings and on their credit cards as they struggle to collect more than $200,000 in claims for wind and flood damage, as well as all the belongings they lost. The reason: Insurance company red tape, and an aggressive home lender that won’t release tens of thousands of dollars from an approved settlement claim.

“We’re about to hit our retirement accounts unless we can get the insurance companies and our mortgage company to release funds already awarded,” Nero said. “It’s a nightmare dealing with all these issues.”

With another hurricane season on the horizon, their story should give all Florida residents pause.

Nero, who spent 17 years until 2013 heading the economic development agency known as the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, knew he would have to claw for every penny that’s he’s entitled to under the insurance policies, but he never imagined it would consume every minute of his life in Ian’s devastating wake. His post-hurricane battle to rebuild serves as a guide and a caution for other area homeowners about what they might expect if and when it’s their turn to experience a catastrophic hurricane and its aftermath.

“If a storm like Ian hits Miami-Dade, wow!” Nero said. “I can’t imagine how bad dealing with the bureaucracy of recovery will be. It’s been very frustrating for us.”

Mortgage Company Keeps Claim Check

In 2011, the Neros bought their three-bedroom home near the Dunes Golf & Tennis Club on the southern tip of Sanibel Island for $665,000. They financed their purchase with a pair of mortgages for a combined $532,000, Lee County official records show.

Two years later, shortly after Nero resigned as the Beacon Council’s CEO, the couple made the Sanibel Island residence their permanent homestead. It’s a cozy, wood-sided home with an exterior painted yellow with pink accents and featuring pink French doors as its main entrance. The garage is on the ground floor, but the rest of the house is about five feet above grade level.

“We were lucky,” Nero said. “We’ve got neighbors whose houses are entirely at ground level. They had to cut their walls to the ceiling to get rid of mold.

Ian flooded the entire garage, where the Thunderbird was parked and where the Neros kept their holiday ornaments, file cabinets and tools. The water intrusion destroyed the entire kitchen from the top to the bottom cabinets, a room they’d remodeled the year before, Nero said. The storm also trashed their pool, which had to be drained, cleaned, repaired and refilled.

Their first two bills were for demolition work and mold remediation that cost them $27,000 and $9,000, respectively.

“You are $35,000 in the hole before you even start rebuilding,” Nero said. “And you have to pay it right away, otherwise the contractors won’t do the work. That is what you are up against.”

When mortgage interest rates were low a few years ago, the Neros refinanced their loans with Mr. Cooper, a Coppell, Texas-based bank that changed its name from Nationstar Holdings in 2017. Three years later, Mr. Cooper agreed to pay $91 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for violating consumer protection laws. The government agency alleged that when the company was known as Nationstar, it violated consumer protection laws after the 2008 Great Recession by preying on home borrowers.

About three months ago, Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co. sent them a check for $86,000 to cover the windstorm damage the Neros claimed. After endorsing the check, the Neros mailed it to Mr. Cooper so a bank executive could also sign it since the mortgage company is listed as a payee.

“Well, the bank decided to hold on to it,” Nero said. “They sent a separate check representing a little over 10% of the $86,000 after I complained about how I was going to pay for the repairs.”

After Mr. Cooper representatives refused to release 50% of the $86,000, Nero filed complaints against the bank with the same bureau that sued the company over the Nationstar violations, as well as the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which oversees banks in the Sunshine State.

“They put a stop payment on the check they sent me,” Nero said. “And they sold my mortgage to another company, RoundPoint.”

Spokespersons for Mr. Cooper did not respond to email requests for comment.

“The new mortgage company still hasn’t received all the information and documents from Mr. Cooper,” Nero said. “I don’t know where the $86,000 insurance money is. After several months of going back and forth with Mr. Cooper, it’s like starting over again.”

No Progress With Progressive

On another front, the Neros have been fighting with national insurance provider Progressive over their claims for flood damage and their lost belongings. In the weeks after Ian hit Sanibel Island, a Progressive team led by an adjuster named Michael Harder inspected the house. Nero’s flood insurance policy paid out a maximum claim of $200,000 and the policy for the home’s contents maxed out at $100,000, said the homeowner.

“Harder unequivocally told me that I would be able to max out on both policies,” Nero said. “That hasn’t happened.”

Progressive spokesman Jeff Sibel requested that the Biscayne Times provide him with the numbers of the Neros’ policies and insurance claim to “look into what may be transpiring” with the claim. Nero provided the insurance claim number but declined to share his policy information.

“Our claims team has been in contact with Mr. Nero and his attorney, and will continue to work with them directly to collect information and reach a resolution,” Sibel subsequently wrote in a statement to the Biscayne Times.

To file their claim, the Neros had to tediously document all their belongings and their value, Nero said. For instance, prior to the storm, the couple took dozens of photos of everything they owned, and then took pictures of the same items after they had been destroyed. This included determining the value of the belongings, including 150 vinyl records Nero had been collecting since the 1960s. They submitted a claim for more than $160,000 in lost belongings.

After submitting a detailed list of the items with the corresponding images, Harder asked them to provide Progressive with websites and web pages that showed the price of the items. For instance, Nero had to state that the prices of Cole Haan and Adidas shoes he owned could be found on the websites for those apparel companies.

“It’s crazy and it’s also a very apparent delay tactic,” Nero said. “They are looking to wear you down.”

In mid-February, the Neros received more bad news. Despite having followed every step, from submitting hundreds of photos and a corresponding list of their damaged and discarded items, Progressive sent them an offer that represented a fraction of their claim, Nero said.

“We just got their offer of $30,000 total,” Nero said. “Folks are getting these lowball settlement offers or [the insurers] just ignore you.”

The legislative special session in December to address the state’s property insurance crisis won’t change how insurers operate, Nero said.

“It actually makes it far more difficult to challenge the insurance companies,” he said. “The legislators blamed lawyers for the problems. But we all have to hire lawyers because insurance companies jerk us around.”

Nero hopes he and his wife will be able to move back into their home by the end of this month, but he’s worried that they’ll run out of money before their insurance claims are fully paid, and all their requested funds are in their bank account.

“Unless you have your own personal resources, the bureaucracy of these insurance companies makes your ability to rebuild so much harder,” Nero said. “People need to be prepared to fight.”